The song made famous by Patti Page in 1953 asks a simple question that serves as an interesting model for describing problems in artificial intelligence. In essence, it is a query about the price of a dog. But how we get there is surprisingly complex. Let us parse…

QUERY: HOW MUCH? How much what? How much does it weigh? How much does it fear cats? The construct “how much is” is accepted as a variant of the more grammatical “what is the price of.” It is further understood that the query is likely thinking in terms of monetary exchange — a number in local currency to be given as fair market value for the pooch. She likely has a price range in mind, or at least has a sense of what price would be unreasonably high.